Chapter 5 — Overwinding: The Short Forever

What’s it like to envision the ten-thousand-year environmental impact of tossing a plastic bottle into the trash bin, all in the single second it takes to actually toss it? Or the ten-thousand-year history of the fossil fuel being burned to drive to work or iron a shirt? It may be environmentally progressive, but it’s not altogether pleas- ant. Unless we’re living in utter harmony with nature, thinking in ten-thousand-year spans is an invitation to a nightmarish obsession. It’s a potentially burdensome, even paralyzing, state of mind. Each present action becomes a black hole of possibilities and unintended consequences. We must walk through life as if we had traveled into the past, aware that any change we make—even moving an ashtray two inches to the left—could ripple through time and alter the course of history. It’s less of a Long Now than a Short Forever.

This weight on every action—this highly leveraged sense of the moment—hints at another form of present shock that is operating in more ways and places than we may suspect. We’ll call this temporal compression overwinding—the effort to squish really big timescales into much smaller or nonexistent ones. It’s the effort to make the “now” responsible for the sorts of effects that actually take real time to occur—just like overwinding a watch in the hope that it will gather up more potential energy and run longer than it can.

Overwinding happens when hedge funds destroy companies by attempting to leverage derivatives against otherwise productive long-term assets. Yet—as we’ll see—it’s also true when we try to use interest-bearing, long-distance central currencies to revive real-time local economies. A currency designed for long-term storage and in- vestment doesn’t do so well at encouraging transactions and ex- change in the moment. Overwinding also happens when we try to experience the satisfying catharsis of a well-crafted five-act play in the random flash of a reality show. It happens when a weightlifter takes steroids to maximize the efficiency of his workouts by growing his muscles overtime. In these cases it’s the over-winding that leads to stress, mania, depletion, and, ultimately, failure.

That’s all folks. Thanks to Douglas for letting us republish his work here.

Yesterday, you heard from Jack McBrayer in our continuing coverage on the movie Wreck-it Ralph. Well today we have a geekdom favorite, Alan Tudyk! This actor has been in almost every serious geek franchise there is: Transformers, Alphas, Firefly, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and V. Just check his IMDb profile for the rest, it won’t all fit in here…

I happen to have been lucky enough to catch up with Tudyk to discuss his stellar portrayal of the evil King Candy in Disney’s Wreck-it Ralph on Blu-ray Combo pack which became available earlier this month.

Below you will find about 9 minutes of conversation that we had where we discuss acting, working with other actors such as John C. Reilly, and the mind of King Candy.

Chapter 4 — Apocalypto

In the apocalyptic scenario, we are either to hope for benevolence when our creation overtakes us, or to negotiate with technology now in order to get some of what we want along with what it wants. As I have come to understand technology, however, it wants only whatever we program into it. I am much less concerned with whatever it is technology may be doing to people than what people are choosing to do to one another through technology. Facebook’s reduction of people to predictively modeled profiles and investment banking’s convolution of the marketplace into an algorithmic battleground were not the choices of machines but of humans.

Those who choose to see technology as equal to life end up adopt- ing a “let it rip” approach to its development that ignores the biases of the many systems with which technology has become intertwined. The answer to the problems of technology is always just more technology, a pedal-to-the-metal ethos that is entirely consonant with laissez-
faire capitalism. Ever since the invention of central currency, remember, the requirement of capitalism is to grow. It should not surprise us that in a capitalist society we would conclude that technology also wants to grow and that this growth supports the universe in its inexorable climb toward greater states of complexity.

However, I find myself unable to let go of the sense that human beings are somehow special, and that moment-to-moment human experience contains a certain unquantifiable essence. I still suspect there is something too quirky, too paradoxical, or too interpersonal to be imitated or re-created by machine life. Indeed, in spite of wide- spread confidence that we will crack the human code and replicate cognition within just a couple of decades, biology has a way of foiling even its most committed pursuers. The more we learn about DNA and the closer we come to mapping the entire genome, for example, the more we learn how small a part of the total picture it composes. We are no more determined by the neatly identifiable codons of the double helix than we are by the confused protein soup in which it actually operates. Put the same codons in a different person or species, and you’ll get very different results. Our picture of human cognition is even hazier, with current psychopharmacology taking a shotgun approach to regulating neurotransmitters whose actual functioning we have only begun to understand. At our current level of technological sophistication, to argue that a virtual Second Life simulation will soon become indistinguishable from real life smacks of fantasy and hubris.

Yet we are supposed to believe. Resistance to the logic and inevitability of the singularity is cast as quasi-religious.

Evil overlords have a tough time when it comes to punishing geeks. We’re so good at retreating into our imaginations and replaying scenes from our favorite movies and TV shows in our heads that we can often weather physical punishments without any psychological consequences. To really punish us effectively, you need to find a way to really get into our heads and aim straight for our geeky psyches.

Here, then, are ten strategies for doing just that, for all those evil overlords — or those who’d like to become one — who could use a little help. Some are more broad punishments that would be effective against many geeks all at once, and some specifically target one geek at a time.

10. Six words: Offer regular coffee, serve only decaf.

9. Force him to watch the movie Waterworld without the ability to mute or fast-forward.

8. Release a new game-changing smartphone that runs all kinds of apps and that everyone instantly wants, but neglect to put in such basic features as copy-and-paste and undo until two years later.

7. Force her to write an article for publication, defending the existence of Jar-Jar Binks and the casting of Hayden Christensen as Anakin Skywalker.

6. Reprogram his electronic music players so that before listening to anything by Weird Al, Jonathan Coulton, Paul and Storm, Marian Call, or the podcast of any public radio show, he must first listen to an entire song by Miley Cyrus, Katy Perry, or Britney Spears.

Our good friends at Google run a daily puzzle challenge and asked us to help get them out to the geeky masses. Each day’s puzzle will task your googling skills a little more, leading you to Google mastery. Each morning at 12:01 a.m. Eastern time you’ll see a new puzzle posted here.

SPOILER WARNING:
We leave the comments on so people can work together to find the answer. As such, if you want to figure it out all by yourself, DON’T READ THE COMMENTS!

Also, with the knowledge that because others may publish their answers before you do, if you want to be able to search for information without accidentally seeing the answer somewhere, you can use the Google-a-Day site’s search tool, which will automatically filter out published answers, to give you a spoiler-free experience.

I have been to a lot of very large conventions in the gaming industry and I’d compare PAX East to the GenCon of the video game market. Although to a tabletop geek like myself, the board gaming, miniature gaming, and role-playing was well represented. I had the opportunity to play a lot of games, observe some games, and add some new games to my games-to-play list.

Games I Played And My Initial Impressions

Disclaimer: I have only played a short convention-style demo for some of the games listed below (unless otherwise mentioned). My opinions are only my first impressions and basic rule sets. Upon playing a full length game, I reserve the right to change my opinion.

D&D Next (Wizards of the Coast): I will admit to being a long-time fan of Dungeons & Dragons since Basic, through AD&D, into 3e and Dungeons & Dragons 3.5. I really wanted to like 4th Edition but was let down by 4e. I’m willing to give this old flame a second chance so I went into D&D Next with an open mind. I played the 2-hour introductory adventure to the system and met five other gamers in the marshaling line that didn’t set me on edge (they were fantastic to play with). So going into the game I had five great people to go through my first D&D Next adventure with and since we were the first game of the day our Dungeon Master had plenty of rest. The stars all aligned to give me a positive first impression of the game. The changes to the rules which resembles many 3.5 mechanics had surprised me by taking a few of the mechanics I really liked in 4th Edition D&D (such as wizard cantrips).

The adventure went smoothly and the pre-generated characters provided a well-rounded experience. The mechanic I liked the most was the advantage & disadvantage rules. The new rules have gotten rid of the big charts of circumstance modifiers, stacked bonuses, range modifiers, and situations that required players to (literally) keep spreadsheets for attack modifiers when rolling dice. If you find yourself attacking an enemy that is unaware of your presence you will have advantage and this allows you to roll 2d20 (two 20-sided dice) and select the highest result. If you find yourself shooting your bow at an enemy at long range, you would be firing at a disadvantage which means you roll 2d20 and select the lowest result. Continue Reading “My PAX East 2013 Tabletop Game Highlight Reel” »

Years ago, game designer James Ernest and some friends were sitting in a bar joking that marching British cows across French fields could be quite helpful in solving two problems at once. The end result is a humorous little card game designed by Ernest and Paul Peterson. Built for two to six people, Unexploded Cow plays in about a half-an-hour.

The basics of play are simple. Players draw from a single deck which has both willing and able cows and events. For a cost, the player lays their cows out in their own personal herd. Once they have readied their herd they send it marching across a field and make a dice roll. Starting with their own cows, they count off the number on the dice and that cow explodes earning its owner the profit listed on the card. Complications come from a number of action cards and cows with special abilities scattered throughout the deck.

If I have one small quibble with the rules, it is with the way the game starts. At the beginning of the game each player antes $500 into a pot from which all the players are paid when one of their cows explodes. As written, the scoring system is a zero sum system. Those who do poorly are guaranteed to end with less money than when they started, and those who win will have the other player’s money in their pockets.

A simple change in wording could have eliminated this player experience. Rather than an ante, each player could start with $500 less. The pot could be created from the bank. In this way, one could use the exact same rules but create more room for players to feel that they improved their position at the end of the game. It is a small quibble, but one which could improve the player experience in a significant way. (In fact, when I play this game with my family, I will explain it this way to my kids.)

Unexploded Cow provides a player experience which would work well with a family game night. The game can be quite hilarious at times and is simple enough to understand, so that even young children could play with some adeptness. While there is a great deal of choice involved with the game, it is also somewhat luck based and will often reward the player who doesn’t over think matters. It rewards the subtle player. Setting up the perfect herd with only high value cows, a player suddenly becomes nothing but a target for the other players at the table, having no chance to execute one’s great plans. Timed at around a half-an-hour, Unexploded Cow is one of those “just play and have a laugh” kind of games.

Originally released as a five dollar black-and-white game, Ernest and Paul Peterson have just re-released Unexploded Cow in a deluxe, full-color, print edition. That edition is currently available in your local game store.

James Ernest’s Kickstarter for his game Deadwood Studios USA closes next Tuesday, April 2nd, and there are still a few stretch goals to meet. In order to meet them, Ernest is offering his audience a costume contest of sorts. For his Kickstarter campaign for Unexploded Cow, Ernest showed up at PAX Prime in a cow costume asking for people to provide him with the means to explode. This time, Ernest is allowing his audience to vote on their preferred costume. The choices are: the cowboy, the cow, or the woman in a black dress. Ernest will be wearing whichever costume his backers support on International Tabletop Day this Saturday as he and his buddies go around the Seattle area attending events at local game stores. You have just a couple of days to vote for your favorite through Kickstarter, and, while you’re at it, pick up a copy of a really great game as well.

There are times in which I am in the mood for a hearty game and nothing else will do—a game which is going to take some time and thought. Trajan is Stefan Feld’s latest offering of red meat for tabletop gamers. Weighing in at a hefty two-and-a-half hours of game play, this is not a game to be started on a whim. However, don’t be daunted. It isn’t an impossible game to learn, and for many gamers it will sate that meaty urge.

Trajan is loosely designed around the life of a Roman household. (What’s up with Rome these days? Rome is the new pirates for game designers.) I say “loosely” because, like Dominion, the skin seems interchangeable on Trajan. Trajan is actually a collection of six or seven different mini-games, which when put together make a complete whole. Players work to advance their position in these mini games and ready themselves for each of four scoring rounds. Much like Agricola, it is very difficult for players to dominate each and every piece of the board.

One of the best features Trajan has to offer is its system for deciding which of the mini-games you will participate in during your turn. Each player has a board with six bowls pictured on it. Each bowl represents one of the six mini-games available on the board. At the beginning of the game, players place two different colored markers in each bowl. On their turn, players pick up one bowl of markers and then place them one-by-one in a clockwise manner in subsequent bowls. The last bowl in which they put a marker denotes the action they will take for that turn. There are also bonus action tiles which are sometimes placed above the bowls. If the player can get the right colored markers in the bowl in which they place their final marker, they can also take the action on the bonus tile along with their regular action. Much of the strategy in the game comes from using the right combinations of markers in the player bowls to generate bonus actions on the board.

The mini-games on the board offer a variety of worker placement, set collection, and resource collection activities. Scoring happens throughout the game, but four times each game players can lose points if they have not successfully collected the resources needed. At the end of the game, a final round of bonus scoring is added to the players position on the board to determine the winner.

There are two key problems that hold Trajan back from standing out above other games of this type. First, the various mini-games on the board are deeply siloed with little to no interaction between them. They have little influence on each other, except to provide points to the same scoring track. This lack of interaction between the components of the game makes them feel like… well, mini-games, instead of the coherent game they are supposed to be.

The second problem with the game is similar to the first. There is little player interaction in the game. In some ways, it is a two-and-a-half hour game of competitive solitaire. This might be fine in a game which played in half-an-hour. However, Trajan can drag during the extended middle of the game. In the last game I played, I repeatedly found myself looking at my twitter feed only to look up when it was my turn. This lack of interaction between players is the game’s greatest weakness.

That said, I do enjoy Trajan, when I am in the right mood. I love the mechanics which drive the player choices in the game, and I always like a game which requires the player to strategize based upon endgame scoring. It makes it much more difficult to assess who is winning as the game goes along. These characteristics alone will make Trajan enjoyable to many gamers who have more patience for event night games than I do.

Trajan is available in the United States from Passport Game Studios.

My thanks to Joe Wasserman, John Jacob, and Connie Rehfuss for helping me play test Trajan at Gamestorm. A review copy of Trajan was provided by Passport Game Studios.

Our good friends at Google run a daily puzzle challenge and asked us to help get them out to the geeky masses. Each day’s puzzle will task your googling skills a little more, leading you to Google mastery. Each morning at 12:01 a.m. Eastern time you’ll see a new puzzle posted here.

SPOILER WARNING:
We leave the comments on so people can work together to find the answer. As such, if you want to figure it out all by yourself, DON’T READ THE COMMENTS!

Also, with the knowledge that because others may publish their answers before you do, if you want to be able to search for information without accidentally seeing the answer somewhere, you can use the Google-a-Day site’s search tool, which will automatically filter out published answers, to give you a spoiler-free experience.